KINGSTON – Rob Matheson, a former city councillor, said Kingston is in a position to take on a leadership role in fields that he said will be in need of some in the coming years.

Matheson, now in his second run for mayor, said he has spent five years driving a taxi, listening to what his passengers have said about the municipal government. He said those conversations formed the campaign he is running on, which includes fiscal responsibility coupled with an expansion of the city’s role in fighting climate change and making Kingston more affordable.

“For five years now I have been doing that, getting people’s feedback, being constantly getting encouraged to run again because we need more working people in political office. We’re very underrepresented, socioeconomically speaking,” he said.

“It only seems to be a game the rich can play anymore, whether you are a business person or a lawyer or a developer. They are the only ones who can have the time off and the support from the monied interest to run a campaign.”

With that working-class foundation, Matheson said he would like to see Kingston pick up the slack that he expects will be created by the provincial government cuts he predicts will come in the next few years.

“We saw the dramatic effect the Harris cuts had on communities, where a lot of services were downloaded [in the late 1990s]. That is going to happen again in the next four years, I presume,” he said.

“We really need a socially progressive mayor here that is not going to be closing shelters the way they have been in the past eight years, that is going to be putting some money into social housing and geared-to-income housing and affordability issues and promoting, above all, a living wage for our own employees.”

Earlier this month, at a Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Matheson criticized the local business organization for its opposition to the previous provincial government’s minimum wage increases.

To meet the challenge of climate change, Matheson said the city has a few tools at its disposal to encourage residents and developers to lower their carbon footprint.

Matheson said the city needs to promote LEED certification in all city-owned buildings, incorporate solar panels where possible and introduce white-coloured roofs that reflect more light than black roofs.

Utilities Kingston has the potential to provide low-interest loans to homeowners interested in making green energy retrofits to their homes.

“We have the technology to start transition to a green economy. What we need, and what we need right now, is the political impetus to do so,” he said.

“But what I am seeing right now, sadly, to the south of us is a climate change denier in office and we have elected one here in Ontario who has already cancelled the Green Energy [Act]. What we need to do as communities is step up to the plate. We have an awesome opportunity in Kingston because we own Utilities Kingston, we can leverage that into becoming a truly green energy program and becoming off grid.”

Encouraging developers to just offer more green options in their housing projects would also be a way to create a more energy-efficient community.

“Right now all of our developments are cookie-cutter developments that are put up with the lowest cost associated, with the highest profit motive involved, as per capitalism, and unfortunately there is no room for people to be able to pick and choose what kind of energy they want, what kind of retrofits they want for better insulation or better roofing technology,” he said.